Anne’s first husband Riley was Dr. Johnson’s gardener. The Santiniketan Park Association, of which Julian Assange’s musician stepfather was a sect member, was a world of isolated secrecy, thus the sect motto “Unseen, Unheard, Unknown”.

1961 ~ Together they found The Family, a religion based on a blend of Eastern mysticism and Christianity.

1964 ~ Dr Johnson buys land at Ferny Creek, {37km from Newhaven Hospital map} where the cult builds Santiniketan Lodge, which becomes its headquarters.1961 (continued) Together they found The Family, a religion based on a blend of Eastern mysticism and Christianity.

1984 ~ Falsely declaried on New Zealand documents that the children were their natural triplets.

1986 ~ Newhaven Hospital closes and is later the subject of a lawsuit brought by relatives of deceased group members. Anne Hamilton-Byrne wins.

1987 ~ Sarah Hamilton-Byrne is expelled by Anne and later talks to police, resulting in raid on Kai Lama. 6 Children are taken away from the property by Australian Federal Police on August 14th. {Ben Shenton & Anouree Crawford were 2 of the 6}

1988 ~ Seven female group members are jailed for social security fraud of almost $200,000

1989 ~ Victorian police establish Operation Forest to investigate The Family.{A policeman named Lex De Man involved in Operation Forest task force spent 5 years trying to bring Hamilton-Byrne to justice and is still angry that she was never prosecuted for the crimes against the children}

1990 ~ Former group solicitor Peter Kibby starts cooperating with police and confesses to forging birth records on orders from Hamilton-Byrne. Former auntie Patricia McFarlane gives information to police about adoption scams.[25]

1993 ~ Anne and Bill are arrested in the Catskills by the FBI after phone calls are traced to Australia. They agreed to be extradited from New York.

1994 ~ Anne and Bill Hamilton-Byrne are extradited to Melbourne. They plead guilty to perjury through documents and in Sept ’94 she and her husband William were fined $5000 each in the Supreme Court for falsely declaring {on New Zealand documents in 1984} that three children were their natural triplets.

1995 ~ Sarah Hamilton-Byrne’s book Unseen Unheard Unknown is published by Penguin.

2001 ~ Sarah Hamilton-Byrne visits Bill before he dies. Anne Hamilton-Byrne attends his funeral in her only public appearance since her conviction.[26]

2013 ~ It is reported that Anne is close to death with dementia in a Melbourne nursing home, and that there is a power struggle within the cult over Anne’s successor as leader of the group.[27] In an interview with ABC Local Radio in Ballarat in response to these reports, Ben Shenton, who had been adopted by the family at the age of eighteen months, said the group had become a “toothless tiger”.[28]

2014 ~ Secret diaries of Raynor Johnson released to the public that gives an authoritative insiders view on how the cult started, what it’s aim was and how it grew.

Hamilton-Byrne has flashes of her old delusional self: a woman born Evelyn Edwards in Gippsland into a family rife with mental illness, who went to school in Sunshine and taught yoga in Geelong before starting her cult and positioning herself as a god.

Dr Moore said the cult’s assets should be seized by the state when Hamilton-Byrne dies and used for compensation to the cult’s victims. Despite getting rid of properties, her estate is estimated to be worth more than $10 million. Land titles show she has given two properties in the Dandenong Ranges to a company she is linked to called Life For All Creatures, whose directors are all current cult members.

Per Sarah’s book Unseen, Unheard, Unknown, Anne’s real estate included a three-story mansion called Broom Farm with property in Langton Green, Kent, England, homes in Crowborough and Red Hill (England), a five acre waterfront property called Upton, huge property outside Trarlgon, England,a mansion in Olinda, three houses on property in the Catskill Mountains, NY, and at least a dozen houses in Ferny Creek that is owned by Anne Hamilton-Byrne and/or her companies Fafette and Audette. Sarah also stated that “because of the professional people she commands, she has been able also to get away with manipulating the outside world enough to create the reality she desires.”

‎In the 1960’s – 1970’s there was a private psychiatric hospital in Kew, Victoria called Newhaven. It was owned by J.M.Villimek, whom was a member of the Santikietan lodge which was owned by Raynor C.Jonson (April 5 1901 -May 16 1987), all nurses and psychiatrists employed were all members of the ‘Family’, all ‘Family’ children were home schooled at ‘Kia Lama’ a rural property referred as ‘uptop’ in the Taylor Bay Lake area in Eildon.

Anne Hamilton – Bryne’s true name is Evelyn Grace Victoria Edwards. Her mother was in Ararat Mental Asylum due to psychiatric illness (type unknown to me at the moment) and Evelyn grew up in Old Brighton Orphange.

{It was kept hidden in a National Bank safety deposit box but was later given to one of the cult members who typed out the handwritten notes}

A SECRET diary uncovered after more than 30 years has revealed how notorious cult The Family trapped people in a web of fear and dependence. The 47-page document, obtained by the Herald Sun, shows how cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne convinced followers that she was Christ who had returned to save the world.

Her cult was based on a mix of warped Christianity, Eastern mysticism and threats of alien invasions. Followers were ensnared from her yoga classes across Melbourne and through psychiatrists who referred on patients.

The warped teachings included:

* ALIENS were going to invade the earth to cleanse the world of evil.

* NO-ONE should intervene if children were suffering because they should not interfere with God’s plan

* HAMILTON-Byrne told followers that she died for a few minutes and rose from the dead to prove her power to a sceptical psychologist.

* A FOLLOWER believed he was John the Baptist reincarnated, and,

* MIRACLES were delivered during yoga practices.

The diary was written by Raynor Johnson, an academic who lived at Melbourne University’s Queen’s College for decades before joining the cult on his retirement in 1964.

Mr Johnson, who was a qualified physicist, left his job and followed Mrs Hamilton-Byrne believing that he was John the Baptist reincarnated.

“I imagine some of those first disciples must have been when called upon to face the incredible reality that the long expected Messiah of the Jews was among them now,” he said. The first disciples must have felt the same as I had felt. They were right, the others were wrong.”

The cult made world headlines when it was raided in 1987 — the same year as Mr Johnson died. Under Mrs Hamilton-Byrne’s command, children were kept isolated at rural properties and forced to take LSD and other drugs in her search for enlightenment on their behalf.

Many of the children were allegedly brought into the cult under forced adoptions. But the grip that Mrs Hamilton-Byrne had on her cult members was complete. Mr Johnson and his wife Mary bought a property at Ferny Creek in 1964 at Mrs Hamilton-Byrne’s request. The home they called Santiniketan, and which became a key base for The Family which included a chapel with seating for 120.

The diaries also give an insight into what may have driven Mrs Hamilton-Byrne to devote her life to controlling others. She told Mr Johnson the grief over the death of her first husband Don was a punishment for being too close to him. As a result, she devoted herself to her version of God, which meant that she did not have strong attachments to anyone to avoid being hurt.

“Anne said it was because she had attached herself too closely in love to Don; so She had to learn the hard way again, and God, by taking Don, had taught her,” the diaries say.

Mrs Hamilton-Byrne, 84, is now living in a Wantirna South nursing home — a fight is expected to occur over her $20 million estate when she dies. She was only ever charged with perjury.heraldsun

Johnson was born in Leeds, England. He earned an MA at the University of Oxford and a PhD in physics at the University of London. He taught physics in London and Belfast, working for a time with Ernest Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory. He became increasingly interested in “the esoteric” and became connected with theSociety for Psychical Research in London.
Johnson’s religious background led to work in Australia, where he was Master of the MethodistQueen’s College at the University of Melbourne from 1934 to 1964. This university gave him a DSc honoris causa in 1936.
Johnson published several books on mysticism and psychic research during the 1950s and 1960s. His interest and writings in esotericism eventually created concern within the Methodist Church, and he retired from his University position in 1964. At this time he owned a property called Santiniketan (abode of peace) atFerny Creek in the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne. There he hosted regular meetings of a religious and philosophical discussion group led by the yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne. This group became The Family, a cult that adopted a large number of children and treated them cruelly until Victorian police rescued them on August 14, 1987. Anne Hamilton-Byrne and her husband Bill were extradited from the United States six years later and faced criminal charges. Raynor Johnson died in 1987

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Hi, I am a 41yr old Highlander & a Mum to 5 delightful wee toerags! When not being Mum, I spend every spare minute researching & blogging whatever i find.
I can't say everything i've blogged is 100% the truth, but it is what i have found on my journey & what I believe to be the truth.
& I can guarantee there is no deliberate disinfo!
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